UrbanRhetoric

UrbanRhetoric

5.10.2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron

All bias aside... you
probably should not read anyone else's review but UR's.
Seriously. Everyone else will probably spoil the good stuff about this
movie and make it an expensive and underwhelming night unless you’re a real
die-hard fan boy/girl. (And this comes from someone who saw this movie
the Thursday night it was released.) That said, Avengers 2 ain't exactly
ground earth-shattering, but it is still pretty good. In the ever-growing
and increasingly tiresome field of superhero movies, Avengers: Age of Ultron is
a pretty solid flick. No, it doesn't live up to its predecessor
(Avengers), but it stands on its own merit as a good movie with nicely
proportioned components of humor, action and seriousness.

Tony Stark and David Banner's furtive incursion into the field of peacekeeping
artificial-intelligence goes completely awry. Hmmm... that's about all
you need to actually know. If I started telling you the other details it
would kind of kill what there is to like about the movie. What I can tell
you is that Avengers was fun, it was entertaining, they introduced a bunch of
new people and other stuff into the Marvel movie world and managed to be
engaging and cohesive enough that you don't realize how much you're being set
up for the next flurry of Marvel pictures on their busy and aggressive release
schedule. Yet... Age of Ultron misses the high standard that Avengers set
for itself back in 2012.

Do you remember the last Iron Man movie with
poor Sir Ben Kingsley as the ridiculous Mandarin? If you don't, bless
your heart. You're better off for it. If you do, then you may see a
similar misstep in Avengers 2. Joss Whedon uses James Spader's effortlessly
snarky voice to create what sounds like a truly ominous villain - and I always
say, if you want a good superhero movie, you MUST have a really good super
villain. That's where the misstep occurs. The sound of Ultron is
awesome... right up until he starts making too many jokes and going a little
bit goofy. I expect my villains to be funny consistently in a twisted sort of
way, but not to actually crack jokes. That cheapens their sinister-ness. Plus, Scarlet Witch (the most talented Olsen girl) and Quicksilver team up with the comically maniacal Ultron to form a dynamic "Big 3" to go up against Earth's mightiest heroes; they give Iron
Man, the Hulk, Thor and the other Avengers the most dangerous imminent threat
humanity has faced yet.

The speciocidal (if that is a word) Ultron and his enlisted 'enhanced humans' test the Avengers physically and put as much relationship strain as you can put into a Marvel movie. Of course, everyone knows it all
has to work out in the heroes' favor, but they give us some cool looking fight
scenes along the way (when the CGI was managed well and the green screen wasn't
obvious) to try and fool us like they might not make it AND they incorporate Jarvis (Stark's AI butler) into the movie as a
more integral part than he has ever been before. It's safe to
say, Jarvis was always one of the coolest things about Tony Stark.

The high points of the movie included the candid
moments between the Avengers and the action sequences and the mention of the
kingdom of Wakanda (the fictional location of where "vibranium" - the
stuff that makes Capt. America's shield - comes from) - if you mention Wakanda
that means: Black Panther!
Word. Unfortunately, there was no actual Black Panther siting, but
still... I'm looking forward to a non-sidekick black superhero (not played by
Halle Berry).

Overall, Avengers 2 brought enough to the table
that I have to admit is was enjoyable (and I heart Scarlett Johansson, so
watching her flip and fight in that outfit is always fun), but even the stellar Scarlett did not make Age of Ultron

as good as Avengers 1, Iron Man 1, Thor 2, or Capt. America 2, or Guardians of the Galaxy. It was at least as good as all the other movies in that series.
Word of advice for you - SKIP IMAX AND SKIP 3-D FORMATS (definitely skip
IMAX 3-D; it aint worth paying 25 ducats) the movie seems to have been filmed
more in 2-D and converted to 3-D, which makes it not worth paying for in 3-D.

Note: Don't forget that there is only one post credit
scene. So after you see the 3 second teaser for the next Avengers, you do
not need to stay a second longer - like my dumba$$ did. Just bounce.

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UrbanRhetoric is written mostly by pemora with some help by her rad friends (IMTHATDUDE, Paj1, DOUGH, jayare20k, MissDTM, Charlie Mango). They all have a love/hate relationship with pop culture. If you want to read more and/or would like to contribute, follow us on Twitter. Holler.